


distraction

by v3ilfire



Series: i fought the war, but the war won [6]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age II
Genre: F/M, back again (gain gain), guess who's back (back back)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 15:25:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11854404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/v3ilfire/pseuds/v3ilfire
Summary: As if on cue, Hesta caught him staring, and there had to be a solid stretch of anything between two seconds to eternity where Fenris had to actively try and remember why he’d looked up from his book in the first place.“Something giving you trouble?” she asked, and suddenly it came back to him."A word."





	distraction

Hawke’s mansion was a notoriously warm place; Bodhan and Orana found it more comfortable that way and given that Leandra no longer had to worry about affording such comforts, she didn’t complain. Fenris liked it better than what he knew of brisk-at-best summers in southern Ferelden (in addition to his own harrowing experiences with some mountain ranges that he wasn’t particularly keen on reliving), but he could tell Hesta preferred it cooler even if she never _said_ anything about it.

She was hard-pressed to wear much more than slacks and an old loose shirt about the house, the sleeves long since torn off and threadbare from her tendency to pick at loose threads in idle moments. Fenris watched her caught still by the low rumble of thunder outside; he was both a little entranced by the way the gray skies softened her and busy wondering if this was the closest he’d ever get to seeing whatever truth about her that always seemed to escape him.

He almost made a comment. He had started to catch himself wanting to say something to her based on these -- _observations_ , of sorts. Fenris wasn’t sure where this curiosity came from but it was starting to pry its way into each and every waking hour and linger in places he least expected it. It was almost like whatever lay past her irreverence was resonating with whatever was past his ‘prickly exterior’ in a way that he could neither understand nor control, and now every time Hesta so much as smiled in his direction, his whole existence went blank and returned with the sole purpose of _almost_ saying something unfortunate.

Once he almost asked if she remembered the last time she drunkenly kissed him in some alley, considering that _he_ only got hit with the memory three days afterwards, between naps. Thankfully he’d lacked the words to pose the question in a way that would do the entire whirlwind of it justice, blamed it on his secondhand knowledge of Common, and moved on. But his self-control was starting to wear.

As if on cue, Hesta caught him staring, and there had to be a solid stretch of anything between two seconds to eternity where Fenris had to actively try and remember why he’d looked up from his book in the first place.  
“Something giving you trouble?” she asked, and suddenly it came back to him.  
"A word."

The fact that she’d taken on the task of teaching him how to read had been embarrassing enough _without_ the added challenge of Common being a language that could only have been constructed by a drunk dog. Luckily his finger was already underneath the troublesome word in question and he was able to recover a scrap of his dignity for when Hesta came to loom over his shoulder.

“Indict,” she said easily, as if it made sense to extend the second syllable and completely drop a consonant sitting snug in the middle of a word. He turned his head to say something biting in that regard (largely because he knew it’d make her laugh), but the thought was forgotten just as soon as he realized that her chin was mere inches from his shoulder.

The air stilled the same way it would to make way for lightning, but there was no low rumble of thunder to warn them away. Just Sandal’s cry of _Enchantment!_ from downstairs, followed immediately by the rattle of a small explosion and a peculiar smell that made the air taste like metal. Hesta peeled herself away from the table and instead turned to lean on it, arms crossed over her chest.  
“And in three, two, one --” 

Bodhan rounded the doorway right on time, just as he always did. “Oh, Messere, I am so _terribly_ sorry. The boy means no harm --”   
“Bodhan.”   
“-- just a very peculiar hobby, Messere, and I _promise_ I’ll talk to him --”   
“Bodhan.”  
“-- won’t do it again. Not as long as you continue to be so gracious to us --”  
“ _Bodhan,_ it’s alright. Come on, I’ll help you clean it up,” she said, and pushed herself upright once again. “You’ll be alright by yourself?” Fenris nodded and went diligently back to his reading, mostly glad for a reason to distract himself from… her. He pretended not to notice when her hand brushed against his bare arm and made the lyrium whine for just a moment, and _definitely_ made sure to smother the smirk on his face when he heard the telling _well, shit_ from downstairs.

Not that there was anyone to see it, but, well. Principle.

Just as Fenris got back to his reading, the scuffle of feet from below turned into sloshing buckets and laughter and, at some point, the muffled patter of paws. Hesta was gone only long enough for him to realize how odd it was that he didn’t miss the quiet of his own home.

When she returned, she hopped right up onto the table and eyed the open book. If he didn’t know better he’d think she was proud of him for the few pages he managed to leaf through on his own.  
“All good?” she asked.   
“You like the noise,” he answered, and then immediately wished that the comfort of their half-conversations hadn’t let him open his damn mouth.

Her answer started with a shrug. “That’s what happens when you grow up in a tiny house with five people and a dog, and occasionally several farm animals.” Fenris had increasingly less trouble picturing her old life, which was a strange feeling when he had no concept of his own. He kept trying to piece it together, turn it, and try another way, all to figure her out and make whatever he felt towards her make _sense_. “You keep staring,” she said after he took too long to respond; grinning, eyes narrowed, _suspicious_. The table creaked underneath her as she leaned down close enough for him to see a summer’s worth of pale freckles across her cheeks. “If there’s something on my face then it’s only polite to say so.”

He had meant to, maybe, but he kissed her well before he could, and she leaned into the gesture with such a quiet enthusiasm that he became sure he wouldn’t live long enough to regret the lapse in judgement.

Hesta broke away at the sound of thunder outside only to ease herself further down onto the table, one hand propping up her flushed face and the other trailing near the edge of the book. Only her legs dangled idly off the edge.  
“Been waiting for you to do that,” she admitted. Fenris was a little taken aback, all things considered.  
“You never _wait_.” She snorted, but instead of saying anything more she merely placed an open palm atop the open pages. Fenris placed his hand there without thinking; her point dawned on him when his lyrium began to buzz. “That… is considerate of you.”   
“You know me,” she sighed. “Silver of tongue, gold of heart.”  
“You forgot charming.” She started grinning as soon as she met his eye again, and he grinned back like the fool that he was.   
“Oh, I _did_. Thank you for that.”  
“I always aim to please,” he joked, though if she hadn’t laughed it would have been more akin to lying through his teeth.

In the lull of their chatter, Hesta moved their still-joined hands off the book and nodded towards it. “Are you gonna be able to finish this chapter or am I going to be too distracting?”  
“We shall have to see,” he said, though he figured the amount of time it took him to pry his eyes off her was answer enough as it was.

**Author's Note:**

> i was editing this and realized that there is not a single fucking pun anywhere in here. i am so sorry @ my daughter i have failed


End file.
